The Occupants

To round out the factory analogy, the building occupants are product consumers. While it is critical to be able to respond to stringent energy policy changes with cost-effective technologies for stakeholders, the customized built environment must be designed and delivered to suit the needs of the occupants. We intend to assemble, synthesize, and create state-of-the-art information, knowledge, and tools concerning human-building interactions. Our central goal is to provide support and guidance for building operations and controls to ensure that the indoor environment can be operated and controlled in a manner that ensures healthful and productive conditions for building occupants. We aim to reduce energy consumption metrics by a factor of two while still significantly increasing the fraction of occupants that are satisfied with the respective built environment.